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March 26, 2022
Wazzu News and Notes - March 26, 2022
- It's been a rough time this week for Cougar baseball. The Cougs traveled to the Bay Area to take on Santa Clara last Wednesday. It was another game where WSU bats were silenced and pitching was roughed up. Elias Farland came on in relief for Coach Brian Green in the second inning and ended up recording five outs, all strikeouts. Sounds good, right? He only gave up one hit, a two-run homer on a 3-1 pitch. Farland was pulled after loading the bases and Green brought in Cam Liss who proceeded to give up a three-RBI double. By the time Santa Clara was done with batting practice the final score was 9-2 in favor of the home team.
Following the loss to Santa Clara, the Cougs (9-12, 1-6 Pac-12) traveled a few miles north to Palo Alto and begin a three-game series with the No. 18 Stanford Cardinal (10-8, 2-5 Pac-12). Friday night lights were not what Wazzu needed to earn a conference win. The Cougs took Stanford 12-innings but lost when Will Sierra came on in relief with the bases loaded and proceeded to walk the only batter he faced forcing in the walk-off win. The final was 8-7 in favor of the home team.
The second game of this series will be played Saturday afternoon with the first pitch slated to be tossed at 2:05pm.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/3/26/baseball-cougars-fall-to-no-18-stanford-in-12-innings.aspx - The Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced Tuesday, March 24, that Washington State sophomore Charlisse Leger-Walker has been named a regional finalist for the 2022 WBCA NCAA Division I Coaches' All-American team. It is the second-straight season that Leger-Walker has been named a regional finalist.
The guard from Waikato, New Zealand was one of 52 players in NCAA Division I to be selected as a regional finalist. Finalists are up for consideration for the WBCA All-American team. Leger-Walker was part of the nine-member Region 5 team, which consists of schools in the western United States. The WBCA will announce the NCAA Division I Coaches All-American team on March 31.
Leger-Walker had a spectacular sophomore season, in which she was named All-Pac-12 for the second-straight season. The sophomore ended the regular season as the Pac-12 leader in points scored for the second-consecutive year, as she scored 483 points in 2021-22. The guard also had the most 20-point games collected by a Pac-12 player this season, eclipsing the 20-point plateau 11 times. - Spring ball has begun for Cougar football and first-year head Coach Jake Dickert. Ranking and rating performance based on one practice that was limited to no "thud" contact is about as important and accurate as discussing the 2024 presidential election. At this point, we really don't know who the starters are going to be, let alone how effective they will be when the opening whistle sounds at the beginning of the football season this fall. Several reports raved about the day Cam Ward had at quarterback. He completed 26 of 35 passes, moved nicely in the pocket, flashed a fluid throwing motion, and appeared every bit the part of a 4-star transfer. Since this first practice wasn't full contact, it's too early to give much stock to comments on the play of either the defense or the offensive line. Those evaluations will come after the first scrimmage. It's best to wait until the Crimson and Gray game at the end of spring ball before passing judgment on this edition of Cougar football.
- Bryce Hendricks of Coug Center reports that the son of former WSU and NFL great James Darling is committing to Coach Kyle Smith to play hoops next season in Pullman. Dylan Darling had the senior season stat profile to suggest he’s at least a mid-major talent with the potential to live up to this high-major billing. He had one of the most incredible senior seasons the state of Washington has ever seen, averaging 33.2 points a game, 8.5 rebounds, 5.8 assists, and 4.4 steals while shooting 55% from the field and 80% from the line at Spokane's 4A Central Valley. He broke Adam Morrison’s record for points in a season and points in a single game, and he had multiple 50-point games and a couple of triple-doubles as well. That's some heady stuff and worthy of being impressive. Will Darling be a solid Pac-12 player? That remains to be seen. But consider this, Coach Smith brought in a couple of transfer guards that were not rated to be Pac-12 talent and all Michael Flowers and Tyrell Roberts have done is terrorize conference opponents this season. Lest you forget, Flowers ended up with All Pac-12 honors. Smith can obviously evaluate talent.
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Wazzu News and Notes - December 14, 2022
- It seems fitting to put together a list of coaches who branch off of the Mike Leach coaching tree. Perspective on his football genius can easily be determined by a cursory glance:
Dave Aranda/Baylor head coach – Graduate assistant coach under Leach from 2000-02 at Texas Tech
Neal Brown/West Virginia head coach – Played under Leach in 1998 when Leach was offensive coordinator at Kentucky
Sonny Cumbie/Louisiana Tech head coach – Played under Leach at Texas Tech from 2000-03 and later served as a graduate assistant coach under Leach
Sonny Dykes/TCU head coach – Coached wide receivers and later was the co-offensive coordinator at Texas Tech under Leach from 2000-06
Josh Heupel/Tennessee head coach – Played under Leach at Oklahoma in 1999 when Leach was the offensive coordinator for the Sooners
Dana Holgorsen/Houston head coach – Coached alongside Leach as assistants at Valdosta State from 1993-95, then served as a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator under Leach from ...
Wazzu News and Notes - December 13, 2022
- The news of former WSU Coach Mike Leach passing at the young age of 61 is very, very sad. I had the pleasure of writing about the Cougs when Leach was at the helm. To say that he was a unique person doesn't begin to describe the multi-faceted dimension of the man.
In terms of coaching football, Leach led his teams in a way that had most other coaches scratching their heads. His offensive creativity gave a multitude of defensive coordinators ulcers. To say that his techniques for molding student-athletes into football players were unusual would be accurate. Making guys run sprints in a sand pit named "Leach Beach" is a prime example. Crazy as that sounds, his players had fewer ankle injuries over the course of the season than any team in football. Only Mike Leach could get players to hit the beach. And if you look at the coaching tree that branches out from Leach, you'd find a myriad of men who owe him for their start in the profession.
When you examine the way Leach represented the schools ...
Wazzu News and Notes - December 11, 2022
- Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so Wazzu's loss yesterday to UNLV by a score of 74-70 was just that, a loss. However, there were plenty of reasons to applaud both the performance and the progress the Cougs are making over the past few games. Let's get the bad observation out of the way. WSU turned the ball over a ridiculous 22 times. No one is going to beat many teams with such wreckless play, especially against a team that posted a 9-0 record going into the contest. Some of those errors might be attributed to Coach Kyle Smith going with a different lineup almost every game because of player injuries. Facts are facts and when there isn't a steady lineup, players struggle to play team ball. On the bright side, Wazzu shot a respectable 54.2% from the field, coupled with a very nice 56.5% from behind the arc. On defense, WSU held UNLV to just 30.4% from behind the arc and 50.9% overall. The Cougs outrebounded the Rebels by a margin of 33-20. Despite being down by ...
